Stuff they don’t talk about in Sunday School
October 12th, 2008 — Archeology, Early Christian History, Geography, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith, Muslim, Old Testament
I just finished a book called “DNA & Tradition”, by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman. The book discusses evidence of Hebrew DNA, and talks about the science and religion of Judaism. As part of the discussion, I learned these interesting facts.
The oldest diaspora communities are in Assyria, later conquered by Babylonia (now modern-day Iraq) and Persia (now modern day Iran). They have been there for 2000-2500 years.
October 5th, 2008 — Archeology, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Israel, Mormon, Science
I found this interesting article at MSNBC which references a recently discovered artifact. It’s not exactly the Holy Grail, but it dates from the time of Christ. The full engraving on the bowl reads, “DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS,” which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, “by Christ the magician” or, “the magician by Christ.”
So, do you think it references Christ, is it a pagan coincidence, or a fraud?
August 19th, 2008 — Canon, Christian, History, Intellectualism, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
When most of us hear the word “jihad” or “holy war”, we immediately know that a jihad is not what God wants. Most of us feel the same when we hear the word “crusade.” Really, does anyone think God wants people to fight in his name?
In the book of Joshua, Joshua claims to be commanded by God to destroy everyone and everything in what is now the land of Israel. Continue reading →
May 21st, 2008 — Archeology, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Scripture
My previous post comments had drifted off topic, so I thought I’d post a new topic along those lines.
Gnosticism means “secret knowledge.” This is not to be confused with the term Agnostic, which means “without knowledge.” Typically, Agnostic people are without knowledge of God. Some are atheists, but not all. Agnostics typically are ambivalent about whether God exists or not.
Gnostics, on the other hand, date from the time of Christ. Gnostic should probably be considered a generic term, such as Protestant. For example, while Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc. are all considered “protestant”, they certainly don’t all believe exactly the same. Protestant is a term to group nearly all “non-Catholic” groups together. In essence, these groups are “protesting” against some of the beliefs of the Catholic church.
May 16th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, DNA, Geography, History, Israel, Mormon, Science, South America
I’m certainly no DNA expert.
But here’s some thoughts anyway. First of all, finding any sort of Hebrew DNA anywhere in the Americas certainly gives critics of the Book of Mormon pause, as it directly refutes some of their arguments. But how important is this discovery?
Let’s talk about the name Cohen first. As I learned from Quest for the Lost Tribes, the name Cohen represents the Tribe of Levi. This is the priesthood tribe. As we go back to the 12 Tribes of Israel, remember that the Tribe of Levi was given no land of inheritance, but was instead granted the priesthood to administer among the other tribes.
April 26th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Christian, History, Israel, Mormon, Theology
I recently came across a blog of Zelph, who is struggling with some tough issues in Mormonism. I also posted a comment in The Milk Ceiling about the Exodus. I thought I would address some of these issues.
Too often, I think we have a concrete view of religion. Either something is true, or it is not. When we learn things that don’t conform to the ways we believe they should, we lose testimony. This is true of all religions.
April 19th, 2008 — 10 tribes, Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Malay, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Scripture, Theology
Ok, I probably won’t get too many comments on this, but it is an interesting topic for me. For some quick background, I previously posted on this topic. I recently purchased a copy of “Quest for the Lost Tribes” by Simcha Jacobovichi. In this documentary, he tries to make a case where he identifies most of the lost tribes, and their possible locations throughout the world. He comes up with some startling conclusions.
What is interesting to me about these lost tribes is the connection to the Book of Mormon. The BOM claims that the Nephites were descendants to the Tribe of Manasseh. So I was interested to see what insights the movie might have on this tribe in particular.
January 25th, 2008 — 10 tribes, Articles of Faith, Culture, Israel, Theology
The LDS Church has a list of 13 general beliefs, which was composed by Joseph Smith in the 1830’s. It does not cover everything the church believes, but is a good guide. In the 10th article of faith, it states, “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes”.
First of all, why do we care about the 10 tribes? Continue reading →
